01-26-2020, 08:58 PM
(01-26-2020, 08:31 PM)KevinL Wrote: By 'snow' you mean Zamboni shavings? I thought urban arenas sent that to a pit to slowly melt down the storm drain.
In Kitchener, everything is dumped outside, but I am guessing in urban centres they are dumped in pits, but it can't simply melt 'slowly'. You're talking about a lot of snow at a very low temperature (like -10ºC), and it would need assistance in melting which requires a lot of energy. Typically, for example, for something like a Rangers game, you're talking at least 4 full boxes of snow per game. After each game, you need to do maintenance on the ice, which removes more snow (and adds water). Typically for normal rentals you're looking at 1/2 box per rental (50 minutes ice time, 10 minutes for flood). I can't see any other way to get rid of the snow (or ice resurfacer shaving) other than to use immense energy, which goes against Kitchener's policy.
There are non-conventional ways such as reusing heat generated from cooling the ice (the compressors), like a heat exchanger, but then you have a system more prone to failures.
In a perfect world, with no climate emergencies, you would use conventional heat to melt the snow and be done with it.